One World Trade Center reaches a milestone: 100 floors; expected to be finished by next year

One World Trade Center towers above the Lower Manhattan skyline and Hudson River in New York. The new World Trade Center has reached a milestone. The skyscraper being built to replace the terror-wrecked twin towers has reached 100 stories. That's just four floors short of One World Trade Center becoming the tallest building in New York City. AP Photo/Mark Lennihan.

By: Verena Dobnik, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP).- The new World Trade Center has reached a milestone: The skyscraper being built to replace the terror-wrecked twin towers is now 100 stories high  on its way to becoming New York's tallest building.

Another four feet, and it will surpass the Empire State Building. That should happen within weeks, Steven Coleman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said Monday.

One World Trade Center is expected to be finished by next year, its 104 floors towering over lower Manhattan.

But feet not stories determine whether a building ranks as the tallest. The twin towers, built in the 1970s, were New York's tallest structures until destroyed in the Sept. 11, 2001, attack.

The Empire State Building then became the city's tallest building at 1,250 feet.

At 101 floors, One World Trade will reach 1,254 feet above street level. Upon completion, it will be 1,368 feet to its rooftop.

There's a special twist when it comes to counting floors.

One World Trade grew from 93 stories to 100 just since last week. That's because six floors don't actually exist; the numbers were skipped to make up for the building's massive base, plus mechanical equipment taking up space.

Conde Nast has signed a lease to move in by 2014, along with the China Center representing that country's business and cultural links to the United States.

With a mirror-like glass surface, One World Trade stands tall above the 16-acre site where other new buildings also are rising. The rebuilt site includes the National September 11 Memorial & Museum commemorating the acts of terror that took almost 3,000 lives in New York, Washington and Shanksville, Pa.